


Renewed Faith

by Ray_Writes



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s03e06 Guilty, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27089704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_Writes/pseuds/Ray_Writes
Summary: Oliver's a little more honest about how he feels when picking Laurel up at the hospital.
Relationships: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen
Comments: 19
Kudos: 45





	Renewed Faith

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Greensirencanary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greensirencanary/gifts).



> This idea came from a prompt by kasumi aka greensirencanary on the Lauriver discord. I really hope you enjoy it, and thanks to you all for reading!  
> Edit: Greensirencanary now has an AO3 account, so this fic has now been properly gifted!

Dealing with Ted Grant’s former protege had given him a lot to think about tonight. About Roy and the truth he’d been hiding from him. About Laurel and the help he had been refusing her. Both of them were struggling on their own as a result, going to other people. For all he had preached to Grant about losing faith in Stanzler, he was failing to show faith in his own friends.

He knew what to do about the former. Roy needed closure about what he had done while under the influence of the mirakuru. The latter, however, was proving as elusive to solve as always.

He never knew how to do right by Laurel. Like his father’s mission, it was a promise he had made on the island and failed to make a reality. He knew what she needed to hear: that he supported her decision to seek out training, that he knew she was dedicated enough and capable enough to take that kind of training on. But how did he say that all while knowing the thought of Laurel training, of getting in fights, of taking on whoever had mercilessly killed her sister left him waking up in a cold sweat night after night? He wasn’t sure he knew.

Oliver knocked lightly on the open door of the hospital room Laurel had been taken to after falling unconscious in the crash. She was already up and shrugging into her jacket as if nothing had happened, like it was just her average Wednesday. It basically was. Why had he thought he could ever protect her the way he wanted to?

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“How you feeling?”

“Worst thing about sobriety is having to pass on the pain meds,” she answered bluntly, wincing a little as a sore muscle was likely pulled. Oliver himself passed on pain meds whenever he could, not liking feeling out of control, but he could admit that the knowledge they were available to him when he needed them was a comfort at times. To have to go without not as a choice but as a necessity was far different. She was stronger than he gave her credit for.

“Right. Thought maybe you could use a ride home,” he offered, taking a couple steps further into the room.

“And an ‘I told you so’?” She guessed.

He hung his head slightly. “I don’t think that I owe you one of those.” At her surprised look, he added, “When I said I wouldn’t train you, I was trying to protect you.” He nearly started to say something about Grant, something that would probably come out unfavorable, but he knew this wasn’t really about Grant. He’d be afraid no matter how clean-cut of a trainer Laurel found. “I just… I just need you to be safe.”

She looked at him, and there was something pitying in her gaze. “Ollie, you know I can’t promise you that. When’s the last time either of us have been safe for longer than a couple weeks at a time?”

He licked his lips. “I don’t know. And it scares me that I don’t know. But what scares me worse is knowing that you might be putting yourself in even more danger soon. I get it, I get why,” he continued just as she opened her mouth. “But I can’t change that it scares me. It’s how I feel about- about you. Because I care about you, Laurel. And I’m always going to.”

She stepped towards him, her hands clasping together. “Then help me to prepare. If you want me to be safer, the more I know, the better off I’ll be.” He shook his head on instinct, and she frowned. “You can’t have it both ways.”

“I know I can’t,” he said quickly, wanting to head off an argument. He hadn’t come here to argue, but like always he was screwing this up. “I just need you to understand—”

“I understand perfectly,” Laurel said, her tone of voice the courtroom kind where she was about to deliver an argument designed to completely knock out the defense. “You’re the one who is struggling to understand that I am not helpless—”

“I never said you were,” he said, his tone rising without his consent. Why did she always pull this out of him? He couldn’t control his emotions when it came to Laurel. “I don’t think you’re helpless. It’s just that losing you—”

“--and I can and will do what I—”

“You don’t know what it would do to me!”

Silence fell so suddenly he felt stunned by it himself, despite his own words being what caused it. Out in the hallway, some machinery faintly beeped, but Laurel never looked away from him, her eyes wide.

“I—” he swallowed, and his voice came out rough. “If you were gone. Laurel, I don’t want to even think about it, that’s how badly it scares me. I need you in my life.”

“I know. I’m here,” she said, her voice soft.

It wasn’t enough. He could feel the pull, the longing that was never quite sated in him for her as surely as he had when he’d first come home, or when he’d spent nights at a time staring at her picture. Oliver moved, hands rising to cup her face and push back her hair.

“Please,” was all he could manage. “Please.”

Her lips were so familiar to him that it didn’t require a testing brush to find the right fit. They melted, melded together in a way he had missed in every other kiss he had had, though he hadn’t known what he was looking for until now. He kissed her till he needed a deeper breath than just his nose allowed. Oliver took one gasp of breath and went in again, Laurel ready and meeting him with her own mouth.

Her hands clasped his arms, ran up his back and held his shoulders, trying to steady him as he swayed into her. Oliver didn’t know what happened when this ended, though, and a part of him didn’t want to be steady if that meant it did.

“You can’t,” Laurel said between one kiss and the next, and he nearly pulled away, worried he’d finally overstepped too far. But the next breath came and so did the rest of her sentence. “—keep doing this. You’re not even supposed to be in love with me any more.”

“I know,” he breathed, his eyes closed. He had tried to move on so many times. He had told himself he was in love with other women, and tried to make them believe it, too. That was wrong. “I can’t help that I do. I guess that makes me the helpless one.”

Laurel drew away enough that there was space between them to look at each other, and Oliver slowly opened his eyes. She was watching him, her look guarded. “Loving someone is having faith in them.”

His shoulders slumped. “Yeah.”

“So do you?”

“I have faith in you, Laurel,” he replied. “I just don’t have faith in me. Every time I try, I fail.”

A little of her neutral expression cracked, just a lift of one side of her lips in a wry smile. “There’s a city out there that would say otherwise. Including me.” Her arms were still around him, and they rubbed up and down his back as she continued. “Look, let’s table this for now. We’re tired, it’s late, and someone is going to check on us if we don’t leave soon.”

He sighed and slowly lowered his own arms from where they’d wrapped around her waist. “Okay.”

Laurel grabbed her purse, then leaned in to peck his cheek. “I will still take that ride home, though.”

“I can do that.” Oliver offered his arm, which Laurel took, and together they left the hospital. He barely noticed the tiled floors or the sterile white walls; to him, he was walking through a daydream. Him and Laurel, again. He would have never imagined it possible.

Maybe he had been right in what he’d said to Grant after all. It just took faith.


End file.
